Padgett has had type one diabetes for 40 years. She was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1994.

This week she was offered a dual-organ transplant of a kidney and a pancreas.

Rep. Susi Hamilton has been in touch with Padgett's family since the surgery.

"Laura is doing very, very well," Hamilton said. "They are quite pleased with how the surgery went and her recovery has already started, so we are very grateful."

Padgett expects to return to her council position in a few weeks. She is the longest-serving member of Wilmington City Council. Padgett was first elected in 1993.

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Laura Padgett was very lucky to get a Kidney/Pancreas transplant. There are now over 112,000 people on the National Transplant Waiting List, with over 50% of these people dying before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.

There is another good way to put a big dent in the organ shortage – if you don’t agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. About 50% of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 15,000 members, including 441 members in North Carolina.

Please contact me – Dave Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers – if your viewers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you’re interested. My email address is daveundis@lifesharers.org. My phone number is 615-351-8622.